About

Our clients are entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders working in technology companies. Tech entrepreneurs have a unique culture and way of seeing things, as well as being some of the smartest, most interesting people around.

As coaches, we offer our clients guidance, skill building, mentoring, and support, and perspective grounded in decades of experience building great software products & services, leading exceptionally productive technical teams, and building successful companies. Our work together will identify and transform your toughest issues — the things that challenge you repeatedly in your business and your life.

Every client engagement is somewhat different, but we tend to work in these areas repeatedly:

VISION: WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?

Whether we are building a vision of your career and your life from scratch, or sharpening one that you’ve already been working toward, we will paint a detailed picture of where we are headed together. Simply knowing exactly what you want is a powerful catalyst, and drives our work in the next three areas.

FOCUS: WHAT ARE THE STEPS TO GET THERE?

The business issues—such as organization, strategy, measurement targets, processes and road maps—are the easy stuff of coaching. This is the part where I act as your personal COO. What is the path, how do you choose between options, and what steps do you take next? What will you commit to in the next week? What might get in your way, and how can we plan for that? These are the nuts and bolts where we figure out what’s most important to accomplish now, and it really helps a lot of people move forward powerfully.

SOFT SKILLS: UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE’S MOTIVATIONS

I want you to have the ability to be in strong relationships with anyone you encounter in life. Enhancing your soft skills is one of the fastest ways for most people to advance in their careers. Our work here will be grounded in real-world scenarios in your life, and we’ll conduct experiments that will show you what really works for you, and cement learning so that it sticks with you for good.

REFLECTION: WHAT BELIEFS NEED TO CHANGE?

A lot of people think that being successful is about pushing harder. While it’s clear you need to be in action, it is hugely helpful to understand your own beliefs, resistance, and patterns. Working together, we’ll uncover how you think, what leads you to act (or drag your feet), and how to optimize for the things you want. This is something that is particularly hard to do alone – the mirroring a skilled coach provides can get you through resistance and confusion much faster than you can do it yourself.

About Marcy Swenson

Prior to becoming a coach, I was co-founder and VP of Engineering at Critical Path, Inc. We were voted “the best-managed, fastest growing tech company” by Forbes ASAP in 1999. My experience as a founder and member of the execstaff there informs my coaching — I know what it’s like to be in the trenches building and nurturing a company that you love, and it’s an honor to help others do the same. When I was at CP in the midst of the dotcom boom/bust, I wish I’d had the benefit of working with a coach. I know I was doing my best absolutely every day, and I also know I had blind spots that kept me from doing better. Executive coaching was still in its infancy at that time, and coaches were primarily called in to resolve things that were seriously falling apart, not to work with top performers.

I earned my coaching certification from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Menlo Park, and I’ve been studying and reading about personal growth, neuroscience, and leadership for over 10 years. My blend of hands-on technical experience, hands-on leadership experience in both public and private companies, and my coaching experience (which focuses on entrepreneurs and startups) is unique.

If you’re curious about how you might benefit from working with me, let’s talk! I’m marcy (at) startuphappiness.com, or 415.260.7726.

About Dale Larson

I am an Executive Coach for entrepreneurs, startup founders, and leaders. I help my clients achieve greater success with more ease. Entrepreneurs are generally lifelong learners; as a coach, I am devoted to accelerating your learning, growth, and self-knowledge. This supports you in making the best possible decisions, and in taking consistent steps to move forward powerfully and do the best work for your company.

I work with a variety of clients from all industries, but as an early pioneer in mobile, web, online commerce, and online marketing, I’m particularly adept at working with technology companies.

A former software engineer, founder, CEO, VP of Marketing and Business Development, I also grew a mobile marketing agency from early stage to acquisition by Omnicom (NYSE: OMC), and have 20 years of experience building and launching consumer products in various categories.

Dale is an ICF-credentialed coach, with training and/or certification through CTI, The Leadership Circle, CRR Global, and others.

As a coach, I help high-functioning startup founders and other entrepreneurs get more success and satisfaction in their work and in life. We typically meet weekly (on phone or in person) and make progress and get results very quickly.

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Marcy Swenson and Dale Larson are executive coaches who work with startup founders and entrepreneurs.

As a veteran of ten startups and small businesses as a founder or early employee, and as a consultant and advisor, Dale helped bring hundreds of products and services to market over nearly 30 years. Now a full-time executive coach to mostly venture-backed tech startup CEOs, he helps high-performing leaders to be happier and more successful in all aspects of their work and life, continuing to learn and grow while they build outstanding products, teams and businesses.
dale (at) startuphappiness (dot) comLinkedInTwitter

Prior to becoming a coach, Marcy was a co-founder and VP Eng with two successful exits. The most recent was Critical Path (“we handle the world’s email!”). She built the tech team that led to IPO (Nasdaq: CPTH). Forbes named CPTH the fastest-growing high-tech company in the world in 1999. She works primarily with tech startup founders and teams.
marcy (at) startuphappiness (dot) comLinkedInTwitter

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